The investigation was launched following a complaint to the competition watchdog by a member of the public who argued that MultiChoice's conduct could be restrictive to consumer choices and therefore tantamount to a violation of a section of the Competition Act regarding abuse of dominant position by a market player.MultiChoice, which owns DSTV and Super Sport, offers five pre-selected channel blocks to viewers in Botswana ranging from the most expensive premium bouquet of P535 with over 100 channels to the lowest P80 block, which has 35 channels.With MultiChoice being a monopoly in Botswana, sentiments are that the company's position of dominance in the market has led to a restriction of consumers' choice as subscribers are forced to take up pre-selected blocks of channels with no option for the customers to pick channels in their preferred bouquet.
"Competition Authority should assess whether MultiChoice is not offending Section 30 of the Act concerning abuse of dominant position, particularly on excessive pricing and selling us a block of channels which the consumers do not necessarily need, a behaviour so restrictive of consumer choice," reads the customer's complaint lodged through the CA website.The company, which is owned by the JSE-listed Naspers, also increases its prices annually by an average of 10 percent, a subject the complaint feels is unfair to the consumer. "I think MultiChoice is directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling price on us. Their price increases every year are so unjustifiable and they are refusing to split their channels so that consumers can purchase the content they need.
